When people start practicing meditation & mindfulness they often come across obstacles to their practice so this week we are going to explore the 3 most common hurdles & how to overcome them.

I don’t have time.

This is the most common obstacle people come across. There is an old Zen expression: You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes, unless you’re too busy then you should sit for an hour.    When we are struggling to find time to meditate, it can feel like another thing ‘to do’. Coming to your meditation in this mindset, you may well find that you either make excuses not to do it or the temptation is to rush through the meditation to get on with everything else. This misses the point! You may well find a few minutes of peace & calm in the practice but it doesn’t translate into your life. If you come to practice for the love of doing so, you’ll find the benefits from the practice extend into your daily life too.

Meditation releases happy hormones into your brain, which actually make you more creative & productive. This, coupled with the focus that mindfulness brings helps you to be more efficient. Many of us think we can multi-task. Scientists have proven that less than 5% of people can actually multi-task effectively. When you are multi-tasking, you are in fact putting your brain under a great deal of strain & it takes longer than we imagine to get back into the task at hand. Mindfulness & meditation promote a single tasking focus which is much gentler on the brain & makes you much more efficient & productive. So, if you feel overwhelmed by what you have to do, stop, slow down, take some time to turn inwards, getting still & silent – it will help you to be more productive, creative & efficient.

My mind keep wandering & I get distracted.

Well here’s the thing: we can’t stop our minds doing what they do, which is thinking thoughts. The goal of mindfulness & meditation is not to control your thoughts but to stop them from controlling you. If you can can bring some of the attitudes of mindfulness to your practice: non-judgment & a kindful acceptance then when your mind wanders, which it will do, instead of getting frustrated or beating yourself up because you’re not doing it ‘right’ you’ll find yourself accepting it. This subtle shift in perspective & seeing the distraction as a way to strengthen your practice can be really helpful.

Mindfulness & meditation is like exercise for your mind. So, when you get distracted, simply recognizing & acknowledging that you have been sidetracked & gently guiding your attention back to your anchor (the breath, your body, something you are observing or listening to) & reminding yourself this is what mindfulness is – noticing you are off down the rabbit hole with a certain train of thought & gently guiding your attention back to your anchor. The more you do this, the easier it becomes.  Sometimes when you have a lot going on, your mind can be very scattered. The best thing to do is to just let your mind free-flow, observing the thoughts like clouds in the sky without getting caught up in the story line. Over time you’ll notice your thoughts start to settle, a little like when you throw a pebble into a pond, the ripples eventually settle.

Other times there can be a lot of noise & distraction around you & it can be difficult to settle into your meditation. Gelong Thubten was teaching mindfulness to a business in London. The employees were complaining about the renovations in the building & the noise of this building work being so distracting. He advised them to rest their attention on the noises, using them as their anchor rather than seeing them as a distraction. When he returned months later the building work had finished & the employees said how much they missed the sounds of the workmen & their power tools! This week’s meditation is the expanding awareness meditation & it can help with this process.

I keep falling asleep.

Many of us are sleep deprived & don’t get enough sleep. If you fell asleep whilst you were meditating, you haven’t done anything wrong, it was what your body needed. Instead of beating yourself up, instead take a moment of gratitude that you gave your body what it needed. After all, the Dalia Lama himself says, sleep is the best form of meditation. And if it’s good enough for the great man himself, then it’s good enough for us. You may find practicing at a different time of day or in a seated pose helps, so play around with your practice, discovering the best posture or time of the day to practice.  With any spiritual practice it is a practice, don’t give up at the first hurdle & watch your intention, like I said at the beginning. You will always get more from the practice when you meet it with a sense of love & joy than if you think of it as another thing to do. Play around with the practice – try different times of the day, different positions & different styles of meditation, have some fun, you will get so much more from the practice this way. Next time we’ll explore some other obstacles to practicing as there are more than you’d imagine!

This week’s FREE meditation is the expanding awareness meditation. To try this meditation for yourself, simply email Alex to the email address below quoting Frost EAM.

Alex is based on the edge of the stunning Cotswolds & has been sharing her love for all things yoga & mindfulness for the last 8 years, not just in the UK but also around the world. Her mission is to help everyone discover a sense of peace & calm within & to encourage them to embrace regular self-care practices.

If you would like more information on how to practice mindfulness, meditation & yoga message her at alex@myananda.co.uk.

If you are after a unique, one of a kind, not like any other book subscription service, you need look no further for I have found The End Of The World Reading Club.

What is that ? I hear you ask.  Well each month you receive a box which contains one amazing fiction book in the apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic or dystopian genre. Be it zombie, alien, viral or nuclear.

So what makes this Book Club any different ? Well the next two elements: you will also receive a How To tutorial card to teach you a survival skill, also pulled from the book. And my favourite aspect is the wrapped gifts that bring the story to life which you open when you reach specific pages in the book. The variety of gifts can be edible, educational or just down right practical.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the selected book but opening the  gifts on the pages indicated  made the whole read more exciting and satisfying  than anything I have experienced before.

There is also a Facebook group that you can join to discuss the month’s box and I have to say, finding  a group that is not only a community but every bit as enthusiastic as I was about March’s box, was fantastic.

www.theendoftheworldreadingclub.com is where you can subscribe to your very own box and chose how often you receive them.

Reviewing a book by the wonderful Julian Norton, one of the Yorkshire Vets, is tricky. Why? Because I find them ALL much like a jam do-nut, one  with a dollop of clotted cream on top and perhaps ice cream at the side – I devour them, and want more. 

And therein lies the problem, – there is nothing to be picky about with All Creatures, nothing to criticise. Readers will just have to bask and enjoy – transported to a wholesome calm world. One not without its tensions because of course, these animals have come to a vet, or he to them, for a particular reason so the reader absorbs the drama and excitement, and invest in it, hoping for the best, and invariably getting it as  Julian   brings home the bacon. Ooops, perhaps I should say, Julian works his veterinary  magic and makes his patients, and our day feel  feel better.

Wholesome, calm, with a sense of the man’s humour and humanity shining through. All Creatures is   celebration of different creatures – great and small – that this Yorkshire vet has come to know and love.

We can of course, picture the glorious Yorkshire Dales, and Julian Norton from his role in Channel 5’s series The Yorkshire Vet, we can hear his voice, and that chuckle, or more of a giggle. We want him as our vet – but then, living in Thirsk, he is our vet at Thirsk Veterinary  Centre she says gleefully.

I think the most beguiling thing about Julian Norton’s books, and indeed Peter Wright’s too, is their love of their profession, their understanding of their animal patients and their commitment to them, but more, it is their love of North Yorkshire, its breathtaking beauty, the air that is so clear the colours have a vibrancy lacking elsewhere.

All Creatures is a song of North Yorkshire, of the hardiness of the dales and the people, the stoicism, and let’s not forget the peculiarities, of the animals dogs, cows or sheep, (and in our case it would be that of  their owners) and the love  underlying it all.

All Creatures by Julian Norton is available in all good bookshops, and from

White Rose Bookcafe here: White Rose Books Thirsk, where you can shop online from their website.

 Amazon , in HB, PB, eBook and Audiobook.

LONGLISTED AT THE CWA DAGGER AWARDS:  congratulations to both Margaret Murphy and Judi Daykin who’ve been longlisted for separate categories in the CWA Dagger Awards.

Joffe tells us, ‘This is such a huge achievement and we’re very proud of our authors for being nominated for these awards.’

Margaret Murphy for the CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY
The Dagger in the Library is a prize for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries. It also rewards authors who have supported libraries and their users.

Judi Daykin’s debut Under Violent Skies for THE JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER
This award is for the best crime novel by a first-time author of any nationality first traditionally published in the UK in English during the judging period. ‘Best crime novel by a first-time author’ means that the author must not have had a novel of any sort traditionally published before under any name whatsoever. In the case of novels with more than one author, all the authors must meet this requirement.

And onto a new gripping crime thriller perfect for fans of Line of Duty! Caro Ramsay’s Absolution 99p/99c There’s a serial killer stalking Glasgow . . . DI Colin Anderson and DS Winifred Costello are on the case. “Brilliant in twisting the tension tauter with each page.” The Guardian “Ramsay handles her characters with aplomb, the dialogue crackles and the search for the killer has surprising twists and turns.” The Observer Grab this utterly gripping crime thriller for only 99p / 99c! Half price for a limited time. Keep an eye out too for these novel, out now…              99p/99c                     99p/99c                 1.99p / 1.99c            1.99p/1.99c             99p/99c Find out more details at: Joffe Books

When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they have dreamed of. But appearance can be deceptive….

As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating, grisly secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there.

Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbours are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…
I am not normally a fan of the thriller, suspense genre but I heard so many good things about The Therapist I thought that I would give it the benefit of the doubt. I was instantly hooked, it is a fast-paced novel and I really did struggle to put it down, the more I read, the more I was hooked. The characters were fantastic, so realistic and easy to relate to

As the secrets unravelled and lies were exposed, I was constantly on the edge of my seat and was not disappointed by the surprising ending, I would never have guessed it. The Therapist is full of intrigue and suspense.

I would recommend to fans of Cara Hunter, Louise Candlish and if you enjoyed Behind Closed Doors then you will love The Therapist.

The Therapist by B.A. Paris. £12.99 hardback and is also available in ebook and audio

I confess my heart lifted when Blackout by Simon Scarrow squeezed through the letter box because I am a complete sucker for Bernie Gunther novels and this stood a good chance of filling the gap. Alas there will be no more of Gunther after the sad loss of the exceptional  Philip Kerr so… is Simon Scarrow’s Blackout the answer?

Consider … Berlin, December 1939,  the start of a war- another one? But Germany is still reeling from the first world war, indeed the world is – so no sane government would consider it… The Nazis, however, are in control, their grip ever tighter, ever darker, ever more forbidding, ever more determined to direct affairs as they wish.

Add to this  crushing situation the fact that winter is approaching, the daylight hours are fewer, and in Germany a blackout is ordered. a real darkness descends.

It is a darkness in which crime can flourish. And does.

Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is already unpopular within the police force, an outsider because of his failure to adhere to the expectations that men such as he should be  Nazi Party members. It is he, moreover,  who has to solve the brutal murder of a young woman. It’s a tricky line to keep to, in order to discover ‘who dun it?’ What if it’s someone held in high party esteem, what if..?

But at least it is only one victim. Only it isn’t.

A second victim is discovered and this puts almost unbearable  pressure on  Schenke to solve the heinous crimes  before it happens again. He exists in a world where questions are not welcome, where walking on eggshells is the norm, where trust is non-existent – because who is in support of Schenke and justice, and who is only concerned with protecting themselves and others within their factions, all of whom are in positions of power?

And let us not pretend otherwise, this regime is darker than any blackout, it is without mercy, without conscience and soul. As Schenke’s investigation takes him closer to a solution he surely must see that his enemy is  not just the killer, but that that in fact it is the world in which he swims.

Scarrow has written an astonishngly taut atmospheric thriller with echoes of the wonderful Bernie Gunther. What’s more it’s a pretty loud echo, but even as I’m writing this, I feel I am wrong, for Schenke is his own man. It is the Nazi regime which is common to both authors.  both of whom summon up the unbearable tension of those times, layer upon layer. Add to that the hunt for the killer, and the reader has barely time to breathe, such is the impact of the meticulousl research, the believable characters, the pace, the depth of evil, and of course, Horst Schenke, a worthy successor to Bernie.

My final thought: I hope this is the start of a series.

Blackout by Simon Scarrow is available in HB, PB Audio and e-Book

Annie Clarke (one of Margaret Graham’s pen names) is the author of the   Home Front series.

In the Blink of an Eye is written probably for the Young Adult market as Eade’s tend to be. I say probably because it is absolutely fascinating, and page turning, so much so that I couldn’t put it down, and … let me break it to you, am not a young adult, though I might look just out of my teens. Now, now, none of that from my readers.

This book  is also that off putting word, ‘educational’. But it is so deftly written by the Eade duo that facts and discoveries  merge effortlessly into young Larry’s struggle to survive – er – survive what? I hear you ask. Read on.

Larry, an Edinburgh schoolboy, defies his doctor father, during COVID-19 lockdown, to meet with friends in the Meadows, but abandons them on seeing Skye, a girl in the year below him with whom he has been in love ever since she sang a solo at a school concert two years previously.

Engineered by Larry’s doting sister, Angie, their young love seems to blossom until Skye is taken away to Stornoway by her single mother and forbidden to contact Larry. Devastated, Larry then goes down with COVID-19 and ends up on a ventilator where his life hangs in the balance. However this is not time wasted, for, whilst, disconnected from his body, he relives past lives – not one, or two, but lives lived over  the space of  seven thousand years.

Oliver Read told Frost Magazine ‘Whenever I returned from a fortnight’s vacation, whilst working as a consultant hospital physician, I would avidly scan the latest medical journals to see what advances or breakthroughs had occurred during my absence. To write something that encompasses every major medical advance during the past seven thousand years would make Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ seem, in comparison, like a Hemingway six-word story. I have therefore chosen only some of the inspired (and inspiring) characters who have played a role in helping humankind, over millennia, tackle the legion of diseases confronting us.’

These stories all relate to major advances in the history of medicine, from the trephining of skulls (drilling holes in the head) seven thousand years ago to the recent discovery of CRISPR technology to remove harmful genes which, when Larry recovers, and he meets up again with Skye, might provide a solution to the true reason for her mother’s decision to separate the young lovers: a genetic condition which was the reason Skye’s musician father abandoned her and her mother.

There is pace and empathy in In the Blink of an Eye as the  love story weaves in and out of the a past highlighting such breakthroughs, changing medicine forever.  Eade gives resonance to the history with his own, often moving,  experiences as a hospital doctor.

This novel is accessible for absolutely all ages. A page turning scenario of endeavour, intelligence and life affirming skills in the truest sense of the word.

Bravo! Oliver and Lucia Eade. We must all read, learn. And bless the saints that be, that we are where we are today in the medical world, thanks to those that came before.

In the Blink of an eye is available in kindle and paperback.

Frost has featured Arthr products before. Powered by the charity, Versus Arthritis, Arthr’s design team aims to make everyday life easier for people with arthritis without taking away their sense of dignity and style and 100% profits of the profits from Arthr go back into the charity.

With the weather improving (hopefully), their gardening range may be of interest to anyone suffering with arthritis, for example the Peta Easi-Grip Cultivator – an ergonomic garden tool that keeps the hand and wrist in a natural stress-free angle to help eliminate strains and pressure which is generally caused by conventional style products.

Kneeling can often cause pain for people with Arthritis. The spring-loaded Recoil Knee Pads help by reducing pressure on the knees and increasing user comfort while kneeling. The six-spring suspension system absorbs kneeling impact when the knee touches the ground. Pressure on the knee is also spread more evenly across the whole joint rather than being focused on one central point, further reducing pain.

For more product information, check out Idealworld TV  throughout April:

• Bedroom range: Friday 9th April 6pm
• Bathroom range: Sat 17th April 4.30pm
• Gardening range: Sat 24th April 6pm

You can find a full range of products at the website.

By Dr K Thompson, award-winning author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co.uk

Note: These articles express personal views. No warranty is made as to the accuracy or completeness of information given and you should always consult a doctor if you need medical advice.